Robyn Cumming
The photographer Robyn Cumming was brought to my attention by Julee Holcombe, and WOW is basically all I have to say!
Robyn Cumming
This photography is right up my alley, if I had all the materials that I’ve wanted to use, I think the work that I would produce would be somewhat similar in the sense of evoking a certain uncomfortable feeling from the viewer. I really like photographs that are creepy or disrupting but it’s not really clear why. It’s the same with movies. The movie Gummo (by Harmony Korine, who also did the movie Kids) is extremely disturbing, but nothing really happens that’s gory or vulgar, just the images make the viewer feel very uncomfortable. It’s not really clear why one would just stare blankly at movies like Gummo or Stroszek by Werner Herzog (1977) where a chicken dances in a cage for the final scene and a rabbit pulls a lever on a fire engine at a local fair. To me it’s very disturbing and makes me think…but WHY? I like the psychology to photography (and film), how an image can stir up such emotion in an individual and have such a different effect on someone else. It’s interpretation and personal memories and experiences that can trigger a feeling just by looking at something so still and sometimes silent or just plain ordinary.
Maybe we’re just all chickens trapped in a cage getting paid like a vending machine to dance around for everyone around us.
